Foot mop with detachable foot engaging portion



March 12, 1957 E PETERSON FOOT MOP WITH DEITACHABLE FOOT ENGAGING PORTION Filed Jan. 21, 1953 [NI 'EN TOR.

ETHER PETERSON United States Patent Ofiice 2,784,436 Patented Mar. 12, 1957 FOOT MOP WITH DETACHABLE FOOT ENGAGING PORTION Esther Peterson, New York, N. Y.

Application January 21, 1953, Serial No. 332,485

1 Claim. (Cl. 15-227) This invention relates to new and useful improvements in an article for dry mopping and/or polishing floors, such as the article disclosed in my issued Patent No. 2,571,606 and in my co-pending application Serial No. 264,013, filed December 29, 1951, now Patent No. 2,738,533.

The invention disclosed in said application includes an improved mop or polisher flexible throughout and incorporating a bottom wall structure carrying the mopping or polishing instrumentalities such as a multiplicity of strands of yarn or the like, and an overlying stall for the fore part of a foot of the user of the device, whereby, with such foot inserted into said stall, shufiling or sliding movements of the foot may be employed while walking so as to dry mop and/or polish the floor. Thus the necessity for a back-kneeling posture is entirely obviated, and the work of dry mopping and/or polishing the floor is easily and quickly performed.

The concept of that invention contemplated a footborne article for the purposes stated constructed entirely of cloth so that the entire article had to be washed for renewing and refreshing the same after repeated use.

It is accordingly, a principal object of the present invention to provide an improvement over my above mop wherein the foot engaging portion is formed separately from the mopping portion, each of these portions around the periphery thereof being provided with spaced slits or openings, the slits in the foot engaging portion being aligned with the slits in the mopping portion and cooperating therewith to receive a single, flexible lace whereby said foot engaging portion and said mopping portion may be completely secured together or separated, as desired.

With such a construction, the mopping portion, which is fabricated of a washable material, may be easily removed from the foot engaging portion, which may then be fabricated of conventional slipper material, for purposes of washing or replacing the former.

The structural details of my said co-pending application, among which are the features that the full and free flexibility of the article allows a side thereof to be swept in fairly closely alongside a baseboard and allows the toe portion to be applied with complete effectiveness to a floor corner, and the feature that the yarn strands or the like are arranged in such a way as to be indiscriminately but considerably projected beyond the bounds of the flexible bottom wall structure, this last feature in part resulting from the manner of securement of such strands or the like to said structure, are all retained in the improved foot mop herein disclosed.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a mop of the above character having an improved footengaging portion.

Yet another object of the invention is to provide a mop of the above type which is attractive in appearance and readily placed on and removed from the foot of the user.

For further comprehension of the invention, and of the objects and advantages thereof, reference will be had to the following description and accompanying drawings, and to the appended claim in which the various novel features of the invention are more particularly set forth.

In the accompanying drawings forming a material part of this disclosure:

Fig. 1 is a side elevational view of a dry mopping and/or polishing article constructed in accordance with one form of the present invention and shown on a foot of a user.

Fig. 2 is a top plan view of the article removed from the foot of the user.

Fig. 3 is a bottom plan view of the article, with the rows or banks of yarn strands merely indicated in dot and dash outlines.

Fig. 4 is a vertical sectional view taken on the plane of the line 4-4 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary detailed view of a portion of the rear of the article shown in Fig. l, but showing the foot engaging portion and the mopping portion in separated condition.

Fig. 6 is an enlarged vertical sectional view taken on the plane of the line 6-6 of Fig. 2.

Referring to the form of the invention shown in Figs. 1 to 6, inclusive, the dry mopping and/or polishing article shown therein comprises a mopping portion including a supporting wall 10. The wall 10 may be made of any suitable, washable fabric and it is preferably formed of two plies or layers of such fabric secured together at their peripheral edges by an elongated tape 11 which is secured in position by a line of stitching 12. The upper ply or layer of material may be of chintz or other similar decorative material and the plies may be cross-stitched as indicated at 13 to provide a quilting eliect.

The wall 10 has the outline of a somewhat elongated oval, with its rounded rear end lying below the heel area of the foot 14 of the wearer upon which the article is engaged.

The mopping and/or polishing instrumentalities are secured to the underside of the wall 10. These, as shown, are clumps of short-length strands of yarn or the like. The clumps as shown, comprise in part, a single central fore and aft extending column or row 15, with the strands of said row caught at substantially midway points along their lengths by two lines of stitching 16, 16, passing through the wall 10.

Also included, for providing complementary mopping and/or polishing instrumcntalities, is an endless bank 17 of said strands, similarly secured to the wall 10 by a line of stitching 18; said bank extending all around the supporting wall 10 and with the stitching 18 also extending all around the article near the peripheral edge of the wall 10. The bank 1.7 of strands, when the device is completed. becomes distended or laterally offset, for projection not only below but outwardly beyond the side edges of the wall 10 as shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 3.

For a purpose which will hereinafter become clear, the supporting wall 10, is provided with a plurality of slits 29, cut along the periphery thereof, as shown in Figs. 3-6, inwardly of the tape 11 and outwardly of the line of stitching 18, substantially as illustrated.

A foot-engaging or covering portion is formed separately from the mopping portion and includes a bottom wall 19 which may be constructed of a conventional slipper material in two plies, substantially as illustrated. The upper ply of wall 19 may be decorative and the piles may be secured together by cross stitches 20 to provide a quilting efiect. A top wall 21 is spaced from the bottom wall and with the latter wall provides a stall for the foot of the user. The top wall is formed similarly to the bottom wall 19 with two plies of conventional slipper forming material.

The upper layer of material of the top wall may be decorative and the layers may be cross-stitched as indicated at 22 to provide a quilting effect. The top and bottom walls are secured together and covered at their peripheral edges by an endless tape 23 which is secured in position by a line of stitching 24.

Midway of its sides and closely adjacent its rear end. the top wall 21 is formed with an entrance aperture 25. with the edge portions of the wall 21, defining the aperture 25, being finished by a length of tape 26 held in position by a line of stitching 27. The entrance aperture 25 permits the users foot to be inserted into the stall formed by the bottom and top walls 19 and 21, respectively, as shown in Fig. 1.

The bottom and top walls 19 and 21 are both provided with a plurality of spaced, aligned slits 30 cut along the peripheries thereof, as shown in Figs. 2, 4. 5 and 6, inwardly of stitching 24, substantially as illustrated.

The slits 30, in the top and bottom walls 19 and 21. respectively, in addition to being aligned with each other. are also aligned with the slits 29 of supporting wall 10,

and cooperate therewith to releasably receive a single elongated tape or lace 28, the free ends of the tape 28 passing outwardly through these slits at the rear of the device and the tape is sufiiciently long to be passed around the ankle of the foot of the wearer and to be tied together in a knot 31 at the front of the ankle, as shown in Fig. l, for securing the device to the foot.

By reason of this construction, the foot-supporting portion of the device is readily detached from the sup porting wall 10 so that the latter may be readily washed or cleaned without harming the foot engaging portion.

With the lace 28 located within the aligned slits 29 and 30, as shown in the figures, the foot engaging portion is efiectively secured to the supporting wall 10. It will be noted that the portions of lace 28 passing below supporting wall 10 do not contact the floor, but are insulated therefrom by strands 17 and 15, preventing abrasion of lace 28.

In use, two of the articles constructed in accordance with the present invention are placed upon the feet and the wearer walks or shufiles about the floor of the house so as to simultaneously dry mop and polish the floors. The sides of the foot may be run along the baseboards of the room and the top portion of the foot may be effectively used for dry mopping and/0r polishing in corners or other inaccessible places.

While I have illustrated and described the preferred embodiment of my invention, it is to be understood that i do not limit myself to the precise construction herein disclosed and the right is reserved to all changes and modifications coming within the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claim.

Having thus described my invention, what 1 claim as new, and desire to secure by United States Letters Patent is:

A cleaning device comprising a fabric supporting wall having spaced slits along its peripheral edge, a plurality of fabric strands secured to and dependent from the underside of said wall, a foot engaging portion releasably connected to the upper side of said wall, said portion including a bottom wall, a top wall commensurate with the bottom wall, the walls of said portion having slits along their peripheral edges, aligned with said slits in said bottom wall, a tape securing and enclosing the peripheral edges of the walls of said portion, said top wall having an opening to receive the foot of the wearer, and a single flexible tape interlaced in the aligned slits of the supporting wall and the walls of the foot-engaging portion and having free ends extended through adjacent slits at the rear ends of said walls toward the underside of said supporting wall and thence rearwardly and u, wardly around the rearward edges of said walls, said free ends being adapted to be encircled around and fastened to the ankle of the foot of the wearer.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,046,230 Springhorn Dec. 3, 1912 1,228,720 Troutt June 5, 1917 2,435,668 Behringer et al Feb. 10, 1948 2,551,723 Camero May 8,. 1951 2,571,606 Peterson Oct. 16, 1951 2,680,309 Peterson June 8, 1954 2,738,533 Peterson Mar. 20, 1956 FOREIGN PATENTS 481,824 Great Britain Mar. 18, 1938- 

